Blog

As the European Commission is finalizing the last set of legislative proposals that can still be completed before the European Parliament elections, MEPs today adopted a non-legislative report in ECON calling for a more ambitious strategy on sustainable finance. MEPs support the criticism that the Commission's Action Plan on Financing Sustainable Growth is too narrowly focused on climate change and should support a wider European agenda on long-term sustainable financing of the European economy. (more…)

Today, the EU High-Level Expert Group (HLEG) on Sustainable Finance published its final report. It's a key step but not the final one - the Commission's Action Plan on sustainable finance, due early March 2018, is where we will see which recommendations will be transformed into EU policy initiatives. The final HLEG report (PDF) published on 31 January 2018 widens the scope of sustainable finance beyond environment and climate change to social issues (although governance issues seem to be left out). (more…)

Looking at the Presidency briefing, today's ECOFIN discussion on European financial supervision promised to be difficult. It suggested that "Whereas some member states support the proposed reforms, a number of others are critical. In their view, the proposals don't reflect the results of the Commission's public consultation, and are insufficiently justified by its impact assessment. Concerns have also been expressed about the complexity of the proposals, and the additional burden this will place on market players." (more…)

Greening the Capital Markets Union This week's European Commission Capital Markets Union Mid-Term Review includes a new "priority action" dedicated to sustainable investment: The Commission will decide by Q1 2018 at the latest on the concrete follow-up that it will give to the recommendations of the High Level Expert Group on Sustainable Finance. (more…)

Today is the deadline for responding to the European Commission's public consultation on the operations of the European Supervisory Authorities. The consultation follows up on the earlier review in 2014, when the Commission decided it was too early to make changes to the legal framework of the Authorities, created in 2010. (more…)

Two weeks left to respond to the European Commission's consultation on the revision of the European Supervisory Authorities (ESAs) for the financial sector. Here is an overview of where the debate stands so far on key issues, based on several debates, conferences and discussions with current and former ESA staffers. (more…)

I am helping out on a project to start a second pillar pension fund for the medical profession in Belgium using ESG-friendly or impact investing principles, as a board member of FairFin. Unfortunately, none of such "ethical" funds exist today. (more…)